Liberals are panicking about 'gender-based' abortions

Talk about a screwed-up moral system. Pro-abortionists are opposing sex-based terminations because they "discriminate".

As the abortion rate for England and Wales continues its journey to the stars, and the Government's Teenage Pregnancy Strategy reaches its unintended goal of a 50 per cent abortion rate among pregnant teenagers, the Swedes have officially legalisedÂ "gender-based" abortion.Â

"The Local [newspaper] reported in February that a woman from Eskilstuna in southern Sweden had twice had abortions after finding out the gender of the child.

"The board has now responded that such requests and thus abortions can not be refused and that it is not possible to deny a woman an abortion up to the 18th week of pregnancy, even if the foetus's gender is the basis for the request."

The phenomenon is tricky to address because it has a religious and ethnic angle (even though Islam prohibits abortion). Indeed, hospitals in Scotland started banning scans a while back because they noticed that primary schools were getting plenty of Mohammads but not many Salmas.

But whereas secular liberals can lecture Muslims on forced marriages or female circumcision or honour killings, they're strangely quiet on this one.

With good reason: there are 200,000 abortions every year south of the border, the vast majority for non-medical reasons. So why is it worse to kill a foetus on sex grounds than because you got p*ssed and didn't use a condom and don't want a baby? It is western society, not Islam, that is messed up here.

A pro-choice poster is confused about the Swedish decision:Â "I'm not against abortion. It's also legal in Canada and I feel it's a woman's rights issue, but I must admit to not liking gender based abortions one bit."

Why? No doubt the widespread "gendercide" – a word coined by the pro-choice American philosopher Mary Anne Warren – Â in Asia, caused by the arrival of cheap ultrascan machines in rural India and China, and aggravated by China's one-child policy, will no doubt lead to social unrest, but in Europe this is not an issue. And isn't this simply a question of rights?

Several of the posters point out how ironic it is that a feminist movement is now used to target and kill future women, although it's not like "planned parenthood" doesn't already have a few skeletons in its closet.Â And speaking of closets, God help us if they ever discover a gay gene that can be tested before the 24th week. Peter Tatchell won't be so hostile to the Catholic Church then.